


0. Prologue: The World Awoke

by DiAnima



Series: Animus Vox: Book 1 [1]
Category: Runescape (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, The World Wakes, and so the 6th age begins, anima: activated, i guess quest spoilers, with a cheerful departure from canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 07:40:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17018532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiAnima/pseuds/DiAnima
Summary: Guthix made a World Guardian. The world makes something else.





	0. Prologue: The World Awoke

**Author's Note:**

> Some context, I hope, for the rest of Lyra's story. In which I break away from canon with absolutely zero regrets. An edit/repost from my previous account. All feedback welcome.

Saradomin looked about the cavern and was greatly saddened by what he saw. He had imagined his return to Gielinor countless times during his long exile. He never thought it would be like this.

  
The huge form of a dead god loomed above them. Tragic for some, perhaps, but unavoidable. Saradomin looked up at it and felt grim satisfaction. The only way to engineer his return was to kill the being that had banished him; Guthix and his edicts needed to be destroyed.

  
He had never anticipated the second corpse. A human lay dead on the ground, female, full-grown; she had been strong before her demise. She had followed them all down here, into this cave below the earth, and she had been the sole witness of the end of a god she had tried so hard to protect. He had named her the World Guardian and had passed some measure of power on to her. When he died, his killer – the Zarosian Mahjarrat Sliske - laughed in joyous victory, and she had flown into a rage. Before Sliske could make his escape he had lost an eye and a hand and very nearly his life.

  
Then, Saradomin had arrived and saw what had transpired, and she turned her rage on him.

  
A necessary loss, Saradomin thought. She would have only stood in my way.

  
“It is such a tragedy that my return must be marked by bloodshed,” he said, breaking the silence.

  
The followers of Guthix were standing around him at a safe distance, seemingly unable to comprehend what had just happened. They were such a strange collection of people and beings. A giant snake,human men and women, and…well, it had to be Death. There was no other thing it could be. This last creature was watching him intensely. Saradomin returned the look, unsure of how to interpret the expression of a skull.

  
“I will not ask your forgiveness, loyal followers of Guthix,” Saradomin said. The snake hissed at him. He ignored her.

  
Death said, “You have committed a great crime.”

  
“It was a necessary loss.”

  
“There will be a new World Guardian,” said Death. His voice was quiet but impossible to ignore, a shiver down the spine, the shadow across an empty grave. “You may have destroyed Guthix’s chosen, but already another has come into being. This time, you cannot stop them.”

  
Death tapped his staff against the ground and was gone. Saradomin watched where they had been for a few moments, digesting this new development. 

  
“My Lord,” said Zilyana. She was restless, shifting from foot to foot, wings twitching. “Do you believe them?”

  
“Death, of all people, would know,” said Saradomin. “We must find them. If there is a new…World Guardian, then they cannot be allowed to stand in my way.”

  
“What are your orders, my lord?”  
  


“Find this new World Guardian. It pains me to say it, but they are a danger to this world if they stand against me, and no doubt they surely will. Find them and end them - before they become a threat.”

  
*

  
In an underground temple, far away from prying eyes, an archaeologist shed his human skin and knelt at the shrine of an ancient god. 

  
Azzanadra told his god what had transpired and Zaros listened in contemplative silence.  
  


“There will be a new World Guardian,” said Zaros, his voice reverberating as it crossed the planes. “Of that I am certain.”  
  


Azzanadra did not question how he knew. “Should we intervene, my Lord?”  
  


“Perhaps. Whoever they are, they will prove a useful ally, and a dangerous adversary, once they are grown. I cannot allow such a person to stand in the way of my return.”  
  


“We should act now, my Lord, and activate the World Gate while the other gods are in chaos. Then you may return to this world before the World Guardian grows to be a threat.”  
  


Zaros was silent for a long few moments.  
  


“No,” he said. “I shall remain on Freneskae, for now.”  
  


“My Lord?”  
  


“Find the World Guardian. Observe them, and once they are old enough to do so bring them to your temple and raise them as one of my disciples. If Guthix has passed on some measure of his power to a native of this world, then I must have them before I return.”  
  


Azzanadra was so surprised that he hesitated in his reply; “Of…of course, my Lord. As you command.”  
  


Zaros must have sensed his doubt, his uncertainty, and he spoke again. “Azzanadra…my greatest, my most faithful, my finest creation. Have no fear. This world is my birthright and I will return to claim it. My timing must be perfect, however, and I am willing to wait until this particular…asset is under our control.”  
  


“Forgive me, my Lord. I am simply anxious for your return.”  
  


“Keep the faith, my Pontifex. I will not abandon you. Find the World Guardian and protect them as one of our own. No doubt they will then aid my return.”  
  


*  
  
Armadyl heard Kree’arra’s account on a lonely mountaintop at the edge of the world.

  
“At least you were not forced to act against Guthix directly,” he said once his general had finished. Kree’arra said nothing. Armadyl could tell that he had been greatly upset, and felt guilt at having commanded him to act as he had done – but he’d had no choice. If Kree’arra had not been there, then Guthix would have been at the mercy of Saradomin’s and Zamorak’s generals, with no reasonable voice to temper their cruelty…  
  


They perched in silence. The icy air whipped past them and snow settled on Kree’arra’s feathers, who had puffed himself up against the cold. It melted before it touched Armadyl, passing through the heat he gave off like a hearthfire, falling on him as soft rain.  
  


“We must honour his wishes,” Kree’arra said after a while. “It’s the least we can do.”  
  


“Of course. This world needs protecting more than ever before, and who better to do so than a native?”  
  


“You believe there will be another Guardian, then?”  
  


“I hope so.”  
  


“What should we do, if there is?”  
  


Armadyl thought for a few moments. “The other gods will no doubt want to either destroy them or indoctrinate as one of their own. We must prevent that as much as we can. They must be allowed to live, and grow, and make their own choices, however they turn out for the gods.”  
  


“We could work with the followers of Guthix, if they will accept an alliance.”  
  


“Indeed. I will send word to my Guardians. The World Guardian, whoever they are now, will be in grave danger until they are old enough to defend themselves. They must be protected.”  
  


*  
  


Slowly, the news spread. Guthix was dead, killed at the hands of the Mahjarrat Sliske.  
  


An ordinary family who meant nothing to the gods mourned the loss of a daughter who had not come home.  
  


The world moved on. It was declared that a new age had arrived.  
  


And - just as had happened millennia before, when Guthix had heard the cry of the agonised earth and woken to defend it - the earth awoke. It heard Guthix’s death cry; it felt his pain; it witnessed as he passed on his waning power to a native of the earth and named her World Guardian.  
  


When she fell at the hands of an invading god the earth heard, and the earth listened.  
  


It found somewhere deep within itself; somewhere dangerous to all mortals who walked above it, somewhere no one would dare venture, the safest place it could find. Here, the earth – the amina of the world, the very spirit and spark of the planet, the essence that gave it so much life – gathered and joined and it made…  
  


…something. 


End file.
